North Africa and the Sahel

13 civilians have been killed on Tuesday (8 August) in what is being reported as the heaviest fighting in Sudan since the start of a civil war nearly four months ago. Arab News reports that the Sudanese army launched airstrikes and heavy artillery salvos to try to take a bridge across the Nile used by the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to bring reinforcements and weapons from Omdurman to Bahri and Khartoum, the other two cities that comprise the capital.

Senior United States official, the Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, has held talks with the military leaders of Niger following a coup last month. Speaking to reporters from capital Niamey, Nuland said that, in talks lasting more than two hours, the U.S. had offered its help "if there is a desire on the part of the people who are responsible for this to return to the constitutional order". The U.S. was not "in any way taken up on that offer", she said.

The United Nations (UN) has warned that Sudan risks descending into a "full-scale civil war" after an air strike was launched on a residential area in the city of Omdurman near the capital, Khartoum, on Sunday (9 July). The Deputy Spokesperson of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that he condemned the air strike that killed at least 22 people, adding that he "remains deeply concerned that the ongoing war between the armed forces has pushed Sudan to the brink of a full-scale civil war, potentially destabilizing the entire region." He said that "there is an utter disregard for humanitarian and human rights law that is dangerous and disturbing." Fighting broke out between two rival generals in Sudan on 15 April after talks between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, over a transition to a civilian government broke down, and fighting erupted. Since then approximately 3,000 people are confirmed to have been killed in the conflict, although the true death toll is likely to be much higher. Widespread sexual violence, targeted ethnic violence, and looting have been reported, as well as food and water shortages especially in the capital city of Khartoum.